200 Years of Sharp Street!

Sharp Street United Methodist Church has been our neighbor for 200 years! Quaker settlers were instrumental to the beginning of the Sharp Street community when they freed their slaves following the Revolutionary War. The oldest Black church in Montgomery County, Sharp Street’s building was founded when an acre of land was conveyed to local African Americans by Quakers Thomas and Sophia Brooke in 1854 for the purpose of erecting a place of worship.

Since then, Sandy Spring Friends have maintained a strong connection to Sharp Street, collaborating on recent projects such as the Feast of Goodness cookbook and Sandy Spring’s new Juneteenth celebration tradition!

On Sunday, August 28 at 12pm, our communities gathered together for a potluck luncheon to celebrate the past and imagine the future. Below is a brief history of the Sandy Spring Friends/Sharp Street UMC friendship:

Sandy Spring Friends Celebrate 200 Years of Sharp Street UMC!

Founded in 1822, Sharp Street United Methodist Church is the oldest African American church in Montgomery County. Quaker settlers were instrumental in Sharp Street’s beginning when they freed their slaves after the Revolutionary War.

At the time of Sharp Street’s founding, Maryland laws prohibited assembly of Blacks without white supervision. One acre of land was conveyed to local Black residents by Thomas and Sophia Brooke in 1854 for the purpose of erecting a place of worship. This land was deeded to three Quaker men to be held for the people of color in Sandy Spring, and in 1886, the land was transferred to Remus Q. Hill, S.E. Powell, and Levi Hall, trustees of Sharp Street.

Friends were the first Christian faith to take a firm stance against slave ownership with positions written in 1772-73. The last slaveholder among Sandy Spring Quakers manumitted his slaves in his 1806 will, the largest manumission in Maryland history.

Sandy Spring Friends and Sharp Street Methodists have continued their friendship into the 21st Century. The Thelma E. Ricks Scholarship Tea, named after a Sharp Street member and avid education advocate, began being held at Sandy Spring’s Community House in 2005, a collaboration of Nora Caplan and Doris Tarpley. Later, Friends and Sharp Street collaborated on Feast of Goodness: A Collection of Recipes of Two Communities.

Over the past two centuries, Sandy Spring Quakers have been blessed by the presence and faithfulness of our friends down the road, and we look forward to the new blessings to come!